'Stop grabbing my ass' Obama claimed: book

During his presidential campaign Barack Obama experienced women pushing their bodies against his, slip phone numbers into his pockets and whisper suggestions in his ear, a new book today claims.

Random women would grasp him firmly by the derriere -- and sometimes try to hold on, while Obama would try not to look startled by it, according to the book Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage (William Morrow) Christopher Andersen reports.

At one time the president reportedly claimed: Jesus, I wish they'd stop grabbing my ass, according to the book.

The reaction from First Lady Michelle Obama then was to tell these women, Back off. Get a life.' It's just embarrassing, that's all, Andersen said according to the book.

The book also claims that Obama had grown close to an attractive young African American woman working on the Obama campaign named Vera Baker and that Michelle worked the woman's departure from the campaign.

When Baker suddenly and inexplicably vanished from the campaign and resurfaced on the Caribbean island of Martinique, tongues reportedly began wagging. A jealous Michelle, it was suggested, had engineered Baker's departure, the book says.